"My first game, my first experience, my first love."

I'm sorry, but even most of the early day girls I met or crushed on can not seem to be able to sway me from this masterpiece of Mario, this work or art, and this (For lack of better, more poignant-y words) awesome and funky game. For this game holds a special place in my heart, for being my first one. (And it sure as heck stands up to all those other favourite games I've played.)

For a 16-year old game, that's quite impressive.

Way, way back in the year 1990, Nintendo released this game, to welcoming masses, many proclaiming it as the greatest game of the year, perchance, the greatest game ever. Cut forward to eh... a year or so later. My parents had installed a Super Nintendo in their house, and I played it quite often. I was quite good, despite the fact that when I found my old, worn-out game, I only made it to the second world, but I was good nonetheless. (Albeit, better than I was when I played the old version again. Ugh, I'm such a bad player when switching consoles.) And so, there it is. My first video game.

And thus, the legacy begins...

Traditional Mario games are generally famous for despite being new, innovative, and having a variety of fun, new things to enjoy, often work off the same tried-and-tested, simplistic formula that it had since the dawn of time. This game is no exception. You can run, jump, and shoot fire like the staples of the game, but now you can control a new friend, or fly for as long as you like until you touch the ground. Respectively, I'm referring to good ol' Yoshi the Dinosaur, a mainstay for the rest of the Mario games, and the Cape Feather; an item exclusive to SMW and a few others.This adds a plentiful amount of depth to the game, where you have more strategies, more things to think about, and need more backup plans if you can't figure something out. And the areas that you go through offer a huge variety of locales to visit, go through, and attempt to search of its secrets. From the tranquil fields of Yoshi's Island, to the dark caves of Vanilla Dome, to the... odd landscapes of the Cheese Bridge, Cookie Mountain and Soda Lake areas, (And yes, that's all in one world. Eesh, that's annoying.) and the harmonious yet dangerous Forest of Illusion. These areas among others will lead you, along with the famed Mario Brothers and their new dinosaur friend, to the final showdown with Bowser, the King of the Koopas, to once more, rescue Princess Peach. (That story NEVER gets old, don't it?)

Ugh...

The game is very simple to figure out, with the simple buttons to jump, run and shoot fire, and a new ability to 'spin-jump' to jump on otherwise dangerous enemies, or break specific blocks. But it gets harder, as some places require things such as using P-switchs, which turn blocks to coins and vice-versa, carefully, or figuring out the equation of Koopaling + Lava + Moving Hill, or even finding secret passageways to unlock secret exits, levels or even giant switches which cause blocks with special powers to appear.

Hmm... pretty cool.

Enough of the basic talk, I'll say. I've already written about 2-3 paragraphs describing the game, and have done nothing to express my opinion by. So let's have at it, shall we? Or as the famous Mario Mario shall say

"Let-sa go!"

Yes, let's get it over with...

Graphics: 9.5/10. Smooth, colourful and bright, but it can never get too much enough to cause pain to my precious eyes. As I can tell, the game's more or less intended for all age groups, so children and preteens are part of it, and they love the nice pretty colourful games, but the graphics appeal to many other people as well, colours aside. The game has a marvelous amount of detail crammed into one tiny little miserable cartridge, which was impressive for its time. (Not so much today, but, I like it.) From the hills to the background, to the shine in the shells, and down the the ground with dirt and pebbles, everything just seems to fit in very nicely with one another.

Graphics only make part of the game. To make it look nice.

Music/Sound: 9.5/10. The music, it's likable. The music is fairly basic, yet they convey the moods and settings of the places and area like a grand narrator. Pretty much every single song, jingle, or symphony derives itself from the same, calm, lively tune. Even if it is altered, from a field to a cave to a fort and back to a field again, it always has a reassuring quality to it, no matter how dire the situation may be. (In the game, of course. Doesn't apply to real life, no matter how much we may try.) Koji Kondo is a brilliant composer for creating many a song for a situation, all revolving around a happy little ditty.

A composer... maybe to the likes of Beethoven? Unlikely, but still...

The sound is also good. Mario's original jumping sound has changed somewhat, but it also fits very well on the new system. The other sounds, such as a STOMP! or a BOM! or even Yoshi's trademark cry, a sound of 'WE-WOH!' or 'BEE-BA!' or something along those lines, are distinctive, and add to the atmosphere of the game very nicely.

Boing! Boing! Woohoo!

Gameplay: 19/20. Simply amazing. I stated earlier that the platforming part of Mario's games simply rely on one basic formula, but change things around enough to have newer players have a sense of enjoyment, but having the veterans not need to learn much is a very difficult task for most. Super Mario World does it with so much effort that it seems like a little. Which in turn seems like a lot. (It's like a domino effect.)

Mario games always have the basic concept of a run-and-jump platformer, and this game is no exception. You run, you jump, you go on platformers. (Er... platforms.) You have enemies to kill. Kill them, jump on them, shoot fire at them, I dunno. Sure, it's easy to the point of absurd, but it's effective. Now just wait and see how the World improved on that basic formula.

You've got... enemies that can't be killed by normal means, places where you have to problem solve to get through, bosses that where jumping on them can really hurt, moving walls to crush our heroes, enemies that drop items, enemies that you can only avoid, 2 secret lands, using aforementioned Yoshi and his abilities, rescuing and using the powers of Yoshi's friends...

And I've scratched the surface. Not barely, but not much. There's way more than what I listed.

The reason why we all game on. Gameplay composes everything about a videogame.

Control: 8/10. My only problem is that sometimes, when I try to Spin-Jump, the game pauses. Meh, maybe I'm just really, really incompetent with SNES controllers, aren't I?

Then again, the rest of the game controls very smoothly. Mario jumps when you will him to, runs when you hold the button to will him to, and the game will even stop to pause while you go off for a bathroom break or to get food when you will it.

Anything you wish for, it shall be granted.

So, let's total up this classic.

9.5 + 9.5 + 19 + 8 = 46/50 = 9/10.

Rent? Buy? Yoshi food?: Buy it. You won't regret it, unless you're missing a Super Nintendo or it broke. In that case, buy it and regret it because it's still awesome and a real treasure.

Super Mario World was the launch title of the Super Nintendo. It sold a lot. I'm not surprised that it was successful at launch, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was still successful now. This game, if you were to ask me, would probably be one of the best games ever. I'm glad I experienced it.